Hiking Patagonia 1 Glacier Martial

Now don't get concerned! We are hiking in Patagonia but well within our limits. This is a "warm up" for when we are in El Calafate. We caught a taxi from our hotel up to the chairlift just below the tree line. Then we rode the ski lift style chairlift up to the top station taking about 20 minutes. Now this is hiking our style!. We were about 5 minutes into the chairlift when it started to snow.It was cold and windy. So windy in fact that they closed the port to toutist shipping. The chairlift was swaying and the snow was swirling.

We arrived at the top station and in no time were in the Hot Chocolate Cafe recovering from our Patagonian hiking.

Having recovered we set out for the top. As we emerged from the door the blast of wind hit us. We had donned our extra layers and waterproof trousers etc but perhaps we should have added more. The scenery was spectacular but the winds were fierce. We went up through the last of the trees and into the open. We started on the dash for the top and having reached the objective, raised the flag we retraced our steps. We seriously felt ourselves being blown sideways at times when the wind gusts hit.

We finally made it back below the tree line, made it to the chair lift and were on our way back down. It stopped snowing at about the same spot as where it had started on the was up! We found a taxi waiting and in no time were back in the hotels peeling off the layers of clothes. A hot bath is very tempting.